Apple wrongfoots iPhoneys

Apple's failure to launch a dinky "iPhone Nano" has caught forgers off guard, leaving Far Eastern manufacturers with forged versions of a product that doesn't exist.

The Beeb reports that the first forged versions of the reduced size iPhone started appearing just after Christmas in Thailand, complete with Apple branding and lookalike interface, but with the real deal turning out not to be real the forgers have been left with a lot of stock that could well find its way westward.

Few people bet quite so much on what Apple might do next as counterfeiters.

Pundits and bloggers take little risk when waxing lyrical about what they think the boys from Cupertino might do next, while peripheral manufacturers have to decide if a product will be successful but they generally get specifications in advance. The forgers, however, have to create their predictions in plastic and copper with no more information than the rest of us, and this year some of them have got it wrong.

Of course, not everyone knows that the iPhone Nano has no existence outside the fevered imagination of the blogosphere, so the forgers will probably shift a few to some dopes who will impress equally uninformed friends with their ownership of the very latest technology - and isn't that the whole point? ®